and Reputation. These are briefly discussed below. Capability or competency In a 1990 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Gary Hamel and C.K.Prahalad published an article entitled "The Core Competence of the Corporation" which defined the notion of a "core competency". Core Competencies are identified by three criteria: 1) they are difficult for competitors to imitate 2) they make a substantial contribution to a number of the firm's products (or services) they give the firm access to several markets and 3) they make a substantial contribution to the perceived customer-value of the products (or services). The (superior) competitive position of the firm's products (or services) in its markets is thought to be the expression of the firm's competitive advantage. Hamel and Prahald go on to assert that core competencies are the result of "collective learning across the corporation". Since that publication there has been active debate in the academic literature as to whether (the concept of) "core competencies" is the same notion as core capabilities. Several authors consider that the concepts are the same, the differences purely terminological, and use the terms interchangeably while others insist there is a substantive distinction. Given the similarities in their definitions it is a reasonable position to think they are the same. However, neither Leonard, nor Hamel and Prahalad (nor indeed Kay) were philosophically precise enough in their definitions and expositions of the concepts for the identity to be definitively established. One reasonable position is that "core competencies" are a view of "core capabilities" from a customers and products perspective while "core capabilities" are a view of "core competencies" from the perspective of knowledge and skills and staff and suppliers in firms. This may reflect the philosophical biases of their respective institutions. Others, such as Max Boisot, take the view that competence or competency is some measure of the level of performance in a capability or that competence is a much narrower concept than capability. Hence a firm may have a high or low level of competence in a particular, notional, abstract capability. There is some evidence that general managers often fail to appreciate the subtlety of the definition of "core competencies" and over-estimate the degree of their firm's competence in common capabilities. Consequently, they over-identify "things the firm is good at" as core competencies – which falls foul of the distinctiveness criterion for a core capability (and/or the inimitability criterion of core competencies